DESTINATION TRUTH - Spirits of Angkor Wat & Canadian Lake Monster

SyFy - Original Air Date: 9/16/10

Josh and Crew go to Cambodia to look for ghosts in Angkor Wat, then head to Lake Okanagan, Canada, to find the Ogopogo.  Angkor Wat, the famous forty-square-mile temple complex, is up first, and the crew has the usual adventures with the locals, and interviews the usual witnesses, on their way.  Then they set up the standard perimeter cameras and start poking around in the dark.  Anyone who has seen the Tomb Raider series or numerous other video games will be familiar with the look of Angkor's amazing architecture, and it's just as creepy and amazing in real life.  Fairly quickly, Josh captures a shadowy, humanlike form on the Fleer (infrared) camera.  Just as quickly, they start seeing shapes moving through the darkness, though they don't fine anything, either human or animal.  They climb to the top of the complex, light some candles and make an offering; oddly, the candles blow out and they see a light darting through the building, though no one else is there.  Back in the states for analysis, they get the usual "voices" in their EVP work, but the figure on the thermal is the strangest bit of evidence.  Again, I wonder about in-lens reflections, but the team concludes that Angkor Wat has a paranormal presence.

On to Lake Okanagan to hunt the Ogopogo, Canada's Loch Ness Monster, reportedly a serpent-like creature 30-60' long.  After talking to the standard local eyewitnesses, they take a plane up and scout the lake.  They see a strange long shape in the water, but can't track it down, even though they go diving and check out a local underwater cave by hand and with an ROV (remotely operated vehicle).  Though Josh does see a large shape swim below him, he can't catch it; silty water limits the ROV's use.  They camp on Rattlesnake Island and set up the usual equipment.  They get a hit on their fish finder, but eventually dismiss it as possible debris.  They spot a shadow on the water on the night vision, but again can't track anything solid down, though the ROV gets caught on something, probably weeds.  A marine expert later suggests that many "Ogopogo" sightings are wakes or bubbles or other natural phenomena.  He also suggests a sturgeon may explain some sightings, though no sturgeon have been caught in Lake Okanagan.  Josh remains convinced, because of his close calls, that something strange may still lurk in the huge, deep lake.

BEAST LEGENDS: Fire Dragon

SyFy - Original Air Date: 9/16/10

The team looks into dragon legends, starting with the legend of Smok, a dragon supposedly killed in Poland. They find the bones of the beast in a church, and one clever team member determines they are: the skull of a rhino, the thigh of a mammoth (or elephant), and the jawbone of a whale (masquerading as a rib).  Similarly, dragon tracks turn out to belong to a dinosaur.  So they play with a gator to see how it swallows its prey whole, and then add the fangs of a puff adder, some gator skin, the belly of a gar fish, and bat wings (naturally - though they discard those in favor of a gliding membrane).  They also mess with a flamethrower setup. And that's our monster mash-up for this week, suitable for terrorizing woodland creatures or city dwellers. Look for it in a SyFy movie coming soon.  Maybe.

FACT OR FAKED: The Caretaker; Cutter

SyFy - Original Air Date: 8/19/10

Cases the group doesn't take this week include a UFO supposedly abducting aircraft, which they dismiss as likely CGI, as no planes have been reported mysteriously missing in Southern CA.  "Creepers" lurking about in a deserted hospital see a shadowy figure, but it looks like a planted dummy to me and the FF crew.  Skunk ape, the Florida version of Bigfoot, looks like a guy in a suit.  ("Look, everyone! Patterson film!" says one team leader, aping the onscreen actions.)  They finally settle on Colorado Cattle Mutilations (Cutter, I guess), and a Cemetery Phantom (Caretaker) caught on film in IN.  The "ghost" on the film was not seen by the people at the time, and locals say it was a "ghost train" passing through.

They go to Indiana first and talk to the witnesses, all believers of course, and no one seems at all suspicious that the image was not seen at the cemetery, only when reviewing the film later.  They set up at the site and try some possible explanations: ATV (too solid, too noisy), a dust devil (recreated by fan, but not convincing), and a man running in mist (similar, but...) Science having "failed," they turn to EVP sessions and catch the usual strange sounds: proof of nothing, in my estimation.  So they call this one "paranormal," and never even consider the idea that a camera malfunction or reflection (which seem mostly likely to me) could have caused this image.  One more case unsolved due to lack of effort and/or skepticism.

In Colorado, the team talks to witnesses, procures a dead cow, and does some experiments -- including a doctor cutting with an electric cauterizer and a laser to try to recreate the mutilations.  (Carcass donated later to a wolf sanctuary, so nothing goes to waste.)  Those techniques either don't work or take too long or both, so they leave the carcass out over night to check for predators. And, as they do that, they look for UFOs, too.  No UFOs show up, but they do find a bird feeding on the carcass, so they decide to try to replicate natural bloating.  They put an inflatable bladder inside cowhide and pump it up.  When they do, they discover that, under pressure, the cowhide rips in curving, surgical-looking lines.  Their conclusion: natural causes.  Score one for science!  (Though I have to point out that this conclusion has been reported and supported scientifically before -- including on IS IT REAL? Chupacabras.)  Maybe it's new to their audience, though.  Case closed.

BEAST LEGENDS: Kraken

SyFy - Original Air Date: 9/9/10

The ads led me to believe that this was going to be some kind of serious investigation of mythical/legendary beasts, and I guess, in some ways, it is. I thought, though, that it would be a "Wow can these beasts be real?" show, or "What is the reality behind the myth?"  In that, I was completely mistaken.  This show, if the premier episode is any indication, rather, takes the reported mythical properties of such beasts, compares them to reality, and then uses those "statistics" to create a CGI version of the beast.  Yeah, it's recreating the monsters in CG, not investigating where the myths came from.  So, at the end we get a pretty cool monster, but no real "meat" whatsoever. And the Kraken they came up with this week was pretty cool.  And they stuff they did to recreate it, seeing real squids, climbing ship's masts, were pretty cool, too.  But, in the end, it seems to me that this show may be mostly of a "tryout" show for future SyFy CGI monster movies.  (And if they need writers for those movies, sign me up.)  It is not a paranormal investigation show.  If you like CGI monsters and just a tad of history/science, tune in.  But if you were expecting SyFy's answer to MonsterQuest, give it a pass.

The Truth Behind UFOs Over Phoenix

National Geographic Channel - Original Air Date: Unknown (Viewed 9/2010)

While this show claims to be the "truth" about this well-known UFO incident, the vast amount of the show is taken up with eyewitness accounts and speculation about what it would take to create and fly a craft like the one reported by those witnesses. Normal propulsion and craft and pilots are ruled out, and there's plenty of talk about what it could "not" be.  "The fact is, no earthly explanations can account for the sightings," the show concludes about halfway through.  They do mention the military flares being dropped that night, but they quickly rule them out as an explanation for any of the sightings.  Clearly, none of these people have seen the first-class debunking in UFOs Over Phoenix, nor would they probably care if they had.  All of the "scientist/experts" in this show are actually UFO researchers; they all have a horse in this race.  There is very little, if any time, given to the possibility that the witnesses are merely wrong -- mistaken or unwittingly exaggerating what they've seen.  Thus does science die the death of a thousand cuts at the hands of "believers."  And make no mistake, despite its title, this show is for believers, not skeptics.  I expect better from National Geographic; sadly, this time, I did not get it.  I cannot tell if this is another in the "The Truth Behind..." series I've reported on before.  If it is, it falls considerably short of the standards of the others.  If you're looking for the truth for the Phoenix sightings, look elsewhere.

FACT OR FAKED: Blazing Horizon; Rollover

SyFy - Original Air Date: 8/12/10

As always, the show starts with a session checking out a few videos.  Rancho Cucamonga Triangle is supposedly a UFO, but the group thinks it's more likely a plane.  The Webcam Ghost looks like cheap CG SFX. The Drone UFO is another in the continuing series of jellyfish-like drone hoaxes: more CG.  The Wiltshire Crop Circle seems complex, but Bill notes humans can make very complex circles; a second video seems to show a globe of light in the circle (though it looks like a bug or fluff to me).  The two cases they decide to focus on are the Paulding Light in MI (supposedly a ghost light warning trains) and the Ghost Track of San Antonio, TX, where cars supposedly move uphill on their own (pushed by ghosts killed in a bus accident).  As always, the team splits into two groups to investigate.  These "phenomena" seem to have easy, non-supernatural explanations to me; we'll see how the teams do.

The Paulding light has souvenir shops set up nearby, propagating the ghost lantern story.  The proprietors take the team out to the vantage point, which looks like view down a power line right-of-way.  Some witnesses think it could be reflections or lights from small planes in a nearby airport.  The team sets up cameras, as the light is reported pretty much every night; they also plan to drive down the lines to try and find it.  Sure enough, the light soon appears, and they give chase, but can't find it. So they run some scans. but find no unusual natural phenomena. The light doesn't even turn up on their infrared camera.  Next day, they head to the airport to do a fly over with a bright light, but they can't fly low enough to replicate the light. Next, they try car headlights.  They shut down the highway so they're the only car on the suspect roadway, but their observer doesn't see their lights - though he sees the bright white Paulding Light, even when they turn their lights out.  Since their actual scientific experiments have "failed," they go to EVP to try to record ghost voices.  (At this point, they have veered from science to fantasy.)  Naturally, the EVPs don't turn up anything.  Why they didn't try to track the light down on foot, keeping it in sight as they went, I don't know; that would seem an obvious course - especially over the course of several nights.  Or maybe they should bring in an expert on optics and reflection (as that show, the name of which escapes me, with Amanda Tapping once did).  While they get points for doing a multi-day investigation, they clearly didn't keep at it long enough.  Thus, the Paulding Light remains mysterious.

I'm betting that the ghost track phenomena will end up being an optical illusion, where you're actually rolling downhill when it appears you're rolling up.  (Anyone who's been to any of the Mystery Spots scattered throughout America will be familiar with this illusion.)  We'll see what they figure out, though. They meet the witness and borrow his car to replicate the video; they clean the car to try and remove any "ghost" prints.  Then, they put the car in neutral, take out the keys, and release the clutch and brake.  Sure enough, the car starts to roll and quickly picks up speed -- and they almost get hit by a train.  They try it again, and it happens again, this time rolling them directly up the little hill near the tracks and across those tracks before stopping.  At this point, I'd try it with a basketball or something similar, but they decide to dust for ghost prints - and, not surprisingly, find nothing. (Suggesting the "ghost" prints the witness saw were on his car before the original incident.)  Then they test with a school bus, which rolls over the tracks, too.  Again, they test for prints, but again find nothing; hauling a water level out on the terrain might be a better idea.  Instead, they test for magnetism & electric fields, and find nothing there, too.  Finally, they pull out a surveyor's level and do some real, scientific measuring.  Which means they figure out exactly what I supposed right at the start: optical illusion.  They also discover that the legend of the school bus accident didn't even happen in Texas.  So, while it took them a while, and they left the Paulding Light as a mystery, at least they got one right.  I'm beginning to think we'll never get a show with two "fakes," though; this seemed like a strong candidate.

FACT OR FAKED: Predator; Red Sky at Night

SyFy - Original Air Date: 8/5/10

The show starts, as usual, reviewing videos and determining what cases to follow.  Stairway ghost turns out to have cuts, shadows behind ghosts, and 2 people pretending to be one on different floors.  Campfire creature they figure is just a person crawling at the edge of the firelight.  Russian Pyramid shows a pyramid-shaped UFO over Moscow's Red Square, but seems an obvious hoax, due to lack of witnesses in this very public space.  The cases they investigate are the Beast of Dartmoor, some kind of mysterious bounding animal that looks like a black lion, and El Cajon Triangle, a Feb. 2008 UFO sighting of red lights in a triangular formation.  Half the group goes to England while the other goes to CA.

The Dartmoor beast has a legend that sounds like The Hound of the Baskervilles - your basic hellhound haunting the moors.  (It looks like a gussied up hound to me.)  They locate the spot where the film was taken, then go to a local animal farm to film a pony, a Labrador-like dog, and a lion against a green screen to compare to the film.  Pony & dog don't look good on film; the lion looks similar, but not enough. A wild boar or a large black (zoo) cat, perhaps?  So they go looking with a local game expert and find a ram carcass scattered over a hillside.  They set up cameras and search in the dark (naturally).  They hear a deep growl, spot horses in the dark, and find another carcass.  Returning home, they create a composite cat-boar simulation in their computer.  (Why?)  England is home to no native big cats, yet people are seeing something.  They don't think the video was hoaxed (though I wouldn't rule it out), so there's "something" in Dartmoor. But what?

The El Cajon team interviews Paul, the video eyewitness. (I sense a voice analysis coming.)  The witness says the lights just hung out and then slowly went out; he wonders if it was a helicopter. The team goes to the Mojave to check out some theories.  Sky lanterns have trouble in the Mojave winds, but the team doesn't think it's the lights anyway.  Lights on a helicopter look right, but the helicopter is clearly audible. But what about a balloon with safety flares on a triangular rig - a simple hoax? Turns out, that's a perfect match, and the show declares the lights over El Cajon a hoax.  It's nice to see them come to this conclusion, as they'd "gone easy" (in my opinion) on many recent investigations.  And I'm still not convinced about that beast.  But how much can you do in a 1-hour show?  Thankfully, there is no bogus voice analysis this week, probably because they already ruled the "UFO" a hoax.